Very good to everyone! How are you? I’m Ismael Vallejo from Clave de Mi and this is video number 8 of our MuseTube course, the course where we are learning MuseScore from the most basic to the most advanced so that you become a MuseScore expert.

In today’s video we are going to see what the basic configuration of a score is like.

If you remember, in video number 4 we were seeing how to create a score, but very simple, practically without any type of configuration.

Well, we are going to start from there, but at the moment of creating the score, we are going to start playing different options that we left aside at the time, but that are really necessary: ​​see the tonality, the number of measures , armor, instruments, etc….so without further ado we get to it.

Let’s go there! If you remember, in video number 4 we limited ourselves to clicking on the “New Score” button, we chose “Treble Clef” and we went directly to “Done” without configuring anything, since the idea of ​​that video is for you to learn how to create a sheet music in just a few minutes.

However, at the time of creating the score, and although it can be modified later, we can configure many more aspects that we will see below.

Therefore, I close this score, we create a new one and once we have arrived here, now I begin to tell you many more details.

As I already told you in the previous video, we have two options when creating a score: directly choose a template that already comes with predefined instruments or manually choose the instrument that we want to add.

In the case of the template, as you can see, depending on the style of music, the type of group…we can choose one or the other.

To give an example, I am going to choose an orchestra.

I simply click on “Orchestral” and click on “Done.” As you can see, it has automatically created a score for us with the typical orchestral instruments: flutes, oboes, clarinets, etc….as I already told you, all of this is configurable and customizable, but we will see that later.

The only thing I want you to keep in mind is that the templates come with a series of predefined elements or instruments that we can choose quickly.

Returning to the previous menu, if we go to the part of choosing instruments, as we see we have them ordered by different families, so that in “Woodwinds” we have woodwind instruments and if we go to “Keyboards”, for example, well we will have keyboard type instruments.

Another faster option is to directly, in the search box, write the instrument that we want to add, so that we do not have to browse family by family.

For example, if I want a trumpet, it is as simple as writing “trumpet” and of all the ones that come, choose the one that best suits it, which could be, for example, the “Trumpet in B♭”.

I’m going to add some more to tell you more things.

By the way, I haven’t said it…I’m here adding instruments and I haven’t told you how to add them.

You simply have to double click on the instrument or, once we have selected one, use the arrow on the right to transfer it to our score.

As you can see, the order here is not the same order in which I added the instruments, since, for example, the trumpet was added first.

Why is this? Because he is adding it to us according to the orchestral order, which is the order that always comes by default, that is, in an orchestra script, the euphonium always comes before the trumpet.

We can change this order and choose the one that best suits our needs.

Likewise, we can make a completely personalized order.

For example, I’m going to choose “Brass Band” and we see how the order has changed again.

But that’s what I said before, if I want a different order, it’s as simple as clicking on the instrument and using this arrow I can move it to the position I want.

On the other hand, if you notice, every time I click on an instrument, the option to “Make soloist” appears.

I have to admit that, although I don’t use this option much, the only thing it does is vary the order of said instrument within the script, since when an instrument is a soloist, it does not appear in the script in the same position as if it is not.

To give an example, if the euphonium were a soloist and I click on “Make soloist”, we see that it has automatically been placed at the top and the “Soloist:” label appears.

But as I said, it is simply informative, it is not useful for anything else.

Finally, if we want to delete an instrument because we no longer need it, it is as simple as clicking on it and clicking on the trash can; That way it will disappear from us.

Once we have already chosen the instruments, previously we always clicked “Done”, but this time, instead of “Done”, we are going to click “Next”, since, clicking “Done”, what we do is which opens the score with some default options, but clicking “Next” allows us to further personalize our score.

Let’s see it! As you can see here, we can configure the structure of our score.

Starting at the beginning, in the “Key signature” part, we can choose which one we want.

As you see, we have both the “Major Keys” and the “Minor Keys”.

We could choose the one we preferred, for example, choose “G major” and, automatically, we see that it places the sharp.

Remember that this is for instruments in C, then we will see, when we move on to the next one, that instruments tuned to B♭ will appear with 3 sharps due to their key.

As for the “Time signature”, well, this doesn’t have much of an explanation.

Measures of 4×4 3×4 6×8… whichever we prefer.

In this case, for example, I am going to set a 6×8 time signature.

Moving on to “Tempo”, let me tell you that in MuseScore, when no tempo is specified, the default is always 120, so if we want a higher or lower tempo we will have to modify it.

In this case, if you notice, the “Show tempo marking” check appears unchecked because as I said, when there is no indication, it is always 120.

So if we want to change it, it is as simple as checking it and choosing if we want, for example , a “quarter note equal to 80”, or in the case of 6×8 perhaps a “dotted quarter note equal to 80” would make more sense.

Finally, in the bars part, we can configure two aspects.

The first is the number of measures we want.

Obviously both this and everything we have seen before (tempo, time signature, etc.) can be configured and modified much later, this is simply a quick way to do it at the beginning, when creating the score.

So the initial number of measures, if we know it, we can mark it and if not leave it at 32.

In my case, to change it, I am going to put 50.

And as for the upbeat measure, for those of you who don’t know what it means.

It is an upbeat measure, it is a measure that is not complete and that is often used both at the beginning of the work and when there is some type of change in the work, so that it serves as an introduction without entering directly into the work.

strong time.

In this case, given that we have a 6×8 time signature, one option, for example, if we wanted an upbeat time signature, would be to tell it that we want a 3×8 time signature, which would mean that we would have the first measure at half time, that is, with a single pulse, or what is the same, with three eighth notes.

If, for example, we wanted to include only an eighth note at the beginning of the first measure, it would be enough to put 1×8, but in this case I leave it at 3×8.

If we continue checking, we see that at the bottom we have different options that, as I said, are also configurable later and where we can put the title, the composer, etc….In this case, for example, I can put “Title: Test score”, “Composer” I am going to put my name, in “Subtitle: First score” and in “Copyright: clavedemi.com”.

Now, we have everything ready and if we click “Done”, we see how all this is transformed into a score.

To analyze a little what we have done, I will tell you: the title, the subtitle and the composer, I think it is quite clear, there is not much to explain.

The copyright is put at the bottom; as you can see here: clavedemi.com.

The instruments are the ones we have chosen: trumpet, trombone, tuba and piano.

The key is G major, that is, all with a sharp except for the trumpet, which because it is tuned in B♭, appears with 3 sharps.

The measure is in 6×8, which is what we had set, the tempo is in “dotted quarter note equal to 80” and the first measure, if you notice, is an incomplete measure, since instead of having two beats like the rest, it has only one and a half beats, that is, three eighth notes, so that if I wanted to enter some notes (which if you remember in previous videos it was using the “N” key, to change to the eighth note with the number 4 and here now I’m going to do it fill with G notes), we see how in the first measure only half of them fit because it is an upturn measure, as I have already explained.

Finally, I would also like to tell you that in the “Project Properties” section from “File” -> “Project Properties”, if you see, we have also filled in the data that we have put in both the title, the composer, etc….Okay, What if now we want to modify this and make some changes? No problem, everything we configured at the beginning can be modified now.

From the “Instruments” tab, which I see was already selected (if not, if we were in “Palettes”, as simple as going to “Instruments”).

By the way, if “Instruments” does not appear for someone, it is possible that they do not have it added.

Simply in “View” -> “Instruments” or with “F7” we see how they are displayed (“F7” we put it and remove it).

We see that we have here a representation of everything we have in our score.

Well, if we wanted to add or delete an instrument, it would be as simple as clicking the “Add” button and we would see that we would reach the previous screen.

The other option is to do it using the “I” key on the keyboard.

And here, for example, we could add another instrument or eliminate one of the ones we had.

For example, I’m going to make the tuba a soloist, so that it appears at the top.

If I click “OK”, we see how the tuba now appears at the top when it becomes a soloist.

Likewise, if we wanted to modify the order of the instruments, so as not to have to open the previous panel, we can simply click on the instrument we want and, without releasing the mouse, move it up or down.

It’s a much faster way to move instruments.

Finally, imagine that we have already made the entire trombone voice and when we finish we realize that it really wasn’t a trombone, that it was going to be a euphonium.

To avoid having to add a euphonium, pass all the notes and then delete the trombone, an easier way is to right-click on any empty measure, click on “Staff/Part properties” and click on “Replace instrument”.

We can also do this from the “Instruments” menu in the gear wheel and in “Replace instrument” we would simply change it to the euphonium, and it would automatically be changed.

And all that said about MuseScore 4, let’s go for a second to MuseScore 3, so you can also see the interface in case there is any doubt.

If you remember, in MuseScore 3, to create a new score, the quickest way was to click on the “+” button that we have here and in MuseScore 4 this button does not exist.

Therefore, we click on it and we see that the first thing that appears now is the last window that appeared in MuseScore 4, that is, the one where we can enter the title, the composer, etc….I am going to fill it in quickly, and if now I click “Next” and we finally get to the instruments part.

Remember that in MuseScore 4 there were two different tabs: one for templates and another for separate instruments and here it works differently.

Here we have the different templates directly and if we want to choose the instruments we simply have to click on “Choose Instruments” and on the next screen we configure them.

We click on “Next” and here, as you can see, it is a screen very similar to that of MuseScore 4.

Here, I could also choose trumpet, Same as before, trombone, euphonium and tuba.

Here we see a drop-down menu that did not appear before, which tells us if we want it to be a standard staff, whether it is percussion or whether it is tablature.

I’m going to choose one with each one so you can see the differences, although really the tablature is for guitars and the percussion is for percussion.

Likewise, if we wanted to remove some, it was as simple as clicking on it and clicking “Remove from score”.

We can also control the order with the arrows and the soloist option can also be converted for any instrument.

When we click “Next”, we see that it also lets us choose the armor.

Before, it was organized in a more intuitive way, that is, it told us if we wanted it by major or minor keys and here the key signature appears directly to us.

We choose the one we like the most (previously we had chosen the one with 1 sharp) and click on “Next”.

And finally, we have the configuration that we saw in MuseScore 4, where here we had chosen 6×8, here we have chosen a 3×8 upturn, the measures: 50, and the tempo in this case does not let me choose “Dotted quarter note equal to 80 “, therefore, it will have to be changed later.

And we simply click “Finish”.

If you notice, he has transformed it for me because since it is “Quarter note = 80”, he has actually converted me to how much it would mean in “Dotted quarter note”, but this “Dotted quarter note equal to 53.3” does not fit me, for which I double click and convert it to 80.

On the other hand, here we can also see how the euphonium has included the “solo” label, which did not happen in MuseScore 4 (I suppose that over time they will correct that error so that you can see at a glance which is the solo instrument), and as you will remember, in MuseScore 3 there is no “Instruments” label, so if we want to modify them we have no choice but to click on “Edit” -> “Instruments “, or as in MuseScore 4, using the “I” key.

In this way, as before, we would reach this screen where we could modify everything.

By the way, I’m seeing that the staff type part has been removed, and I’m going to put it back, although it’s possible that the percussion and tablature parts haven’t been loaded because they can’t be loaded.

As you can see, it must actually be that due to the type of instruments they are, it doesn’t let me put it on.

However, if I add a percussion one and a guitar one, it may now let me do it.

Automatically it has set five-line percussion and on classical guitar I can set the tablature.

As you can see, now he has done it to me.

And that’s it for today’s video.

It is a video that I think is relatively simple to understand but is very important since it is basically the structure of our score.

From here, we can start adding notes, rests, chords…whatever, but we already have our structure fixed and we know not only how to create it but also how to modify it, since it may be that at first we create a score in a key and then we realize that we really have to do it somewhere else.

Although in the future we will also learn to transpose, to change the key signature in the middle of the work, etc.

So nothing, any questions you have, I encourage you to leave it in a comment and as always I encourage you to subscribe, to click in the bell so that you don’t miss any videos of this MuseScore series, and if you also want to leave a like, I will be very grateful since that way YouTube will little by little give more importance to this course.

See you in future videos where we will go very deep into the insertion of notes, chords and silences.

See you soon!